Page 96 of Ruthless Keeper
I grab him by the collar again, heedless of the pain radiating through my chest from the bullet’s impact, and drag him to the next barricade back, firing my AR blindly in the interim, hoping to fuck I hit at leastsomeone.
It’s a miracle I get Elijah and I behind the next set of tables in one piece. There, I give myself five seconds to check him over… and I wince. He’s leaking from a hole in the bottom left of his torso, right beneath the vest. If he doesn’t get medical attention soon, he’s dead.
If I don’t find a way to kill these pricks soon,I’mdead. And then, Scarlett’s dead.
No. That’s not how our story ends.
“You’re losing a lot of blood,” I tell Elijah. Something blooms in my own chest—not from the bullet that’d have taken me out if it wasn’t for the vest, but a dark, dreary emotion.Hopelessness.
We’re cornered. We’re outnumbered. The tables aren’t doing what they should. We’re all maybe a minute away from death, and I don’t know how to get out of this fucking situation.I don’t see a path forward.
I shouldn’t have limited us to the fucking dining hall. I should’ve positioned all of us at different vantage points throughout the first floor. I should’ve doneanythingbut what I did.
I’m going to fail my men. I’m going to fail the Nighthawks, and Scarlett.
Cain, much as I hate him, will fail as a leader because ofme. He won’t have a fortress or headquarters to return to.
The realization that I’m through sinks in deep, gutting me. The knowledge that I probably won’t see Scarlett, the only woman I’ve ever loved, decimates me. Failure descends on me like a thousand-pound weight, making my AR sag in my hands. For the first time since my initiating op, tears prickle at my eyes.
More gunfire sounds from the door, but it’s different this time. The bullets have another cadence. Then, a familiar voice calls out, “Mask up!”
Max’svoice. A heartbeat later, gas fills the room. I suck in a deep breath before I lose it, slap my mask on Elijah, protecting him, and scramble to the back of the room, tugging Elijah with me and getting behind the final barrier. I barely get a glimpse of Toby and Bryan, both scrambling to get their gas masks on, before I squeeze my eyes and cover my ears. If the nerve gas hits even my nostrils, I’m fucking dead…
But I can’t think about that now. Max will protect Scarlett. Her survival is my endgame, and he has enough honor to ensure it.
Two minutes is the effectiveness period of the gas. I have maybe thirty seconds before it gets to me and probably kills me.
In those thirty seconds, an entire lifetime plays out across my mind’s eye. My shit childhood, made better only by Sam. Losing Sam, and finding Scarlett. Scarlett’s hair, her eyes, her sharp tongue, her wit, everything about her.
The image of her, the memories I madewithher, make my final seconds in this world worth it. Maybe she’s already pregnant, and my legacy will live on. At least she’ll have a few good memories with me…
Hard material touches my face. A strap is secured over the back of my head, and someone shakes my shoulders with jarring strength.
It’s a fuckinggas mask.
…how?
If Elijah gave me his, I’ll fucking kill him—
But when I open my eyes, I don’t see Elijah unmasked. I see a thatch of Max’s red hair, and his eyes staring at me from behind his own mask.
He must’ve brought an extra with him. The bastard is always known for being overprepared...
Relief suffuses me as my burning lungs get their first breath when I thought I’d taken my last one. A single tear rolls down my cheek, and I’m so damn grateful no one can see it.
“Three left,” Max says, shaking my shoulders again. His voice is slightly muted, but I can still make it out.Three left. That means he killed four men on his own.
There’s a reason both of us are in leadership positions; next to Cain, we’re the best the Nighthawks have. And today has only proven it.
“Greyson!” Max gives me a jarring rattle. “They’re going upstairs, man. Luther fucking Sharpe and the two surviving Widowers. They’re going to find Scarlett—”
“Toby and Bryan,” I bark. “Keep Elijah alive. Max, you’re with me.”
I will breathe in nerve gas a billion times, will bleed out on the ground, will doanythingto keep Scarlett from her father.
“Good news and bad news,” Toby says. “I activated the machine guns in the walls of the stairwell to get one of the three—he’s not dead, but he’s injured. That’s the good news.”
“Max, find him and kill him,” I command. I swallow harshly, gazing at Toby. “And the bad?”
